BikinginLA

Day 155 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Happy International Corgi Day to all who celebrate.

And seriously, why wouldn’t you?

Photo from 6th Street Bridge during 2023 Heart of LA CicLAvia.

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Yesterday was World Bicycle Day.

Or as it was known here in Los Angeles, Tuesday.

Just one more example of the city not treating us as second-class citizens, because they don’t even give us a passing thought.

Case in point, last month’s Bike to Work Day, which Los Angeles officials observed by ignoring it. And us.

Meanwhile, Zag Daily says it’s a pivotal time for bicycling, which is why World Bicycle Day matters.

Think Global Health says regular bicycling is good for physical, mental and yes, planetary health, but more sustainable urban planning is needed.

An Indian writer penned an ode to the humble bicycle.

In a purely performative move, New York renamed a bicycle tunnel as the “World Bicycle Day Bike Underpass” for one whole day. But at least that was better than LA did. 

The Coachella Valley marked World Bicycle Day by reminding drivers to use caution around people on bicycles.

Then there was this —

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The Orange County Bike Coalition has come out against Class IV protected bike lanes, calling out the “known hazards (they) cause to the riders that use them.”

Like other bicyclists we’ve heard from in San Diego, the OCBC expressed concerns about riders risking injuries by colliding with the raised barriers separating them from traffic.

Although it’s hard to reconcile anecdotal reports of hazards with studies showing they dramatically increase ridership and improve safety for everyone using the roadway.

Let’s hope that’s something researchers will take a look at.

And find a way to both protect riders from drivers, and from the bike lanes themselves.

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Metro is hosting a relaxed, family friendly ride to explore the newly opened segment of the Rail to Rail Active Transportation Corridor in South LA this Sunday.

The three-mile round-trip ride even includes a scheduled snack stop at Granny’s Kitchen Southern Style Soul Food along the way.

Although maybe someone should tell KTLA-5 that it helps to mention what day the ride is in their news reports. 

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Who needs new tires when you’ve got duct tape?

Duct tape fixes everything
byu/Visible-Grass-8805 inJustridingalong

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

Streetsblog takes a look at that off-the-rails Kern County Grand Jury report that criticized spending on Bakersfield bike lanes, concluding, in effect, that it’s too hot and smoggy to ride a bicycle in the summer, so everyone should just stay in their cars.

Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

When you’re carrying meth and magic mushrooms, and trying to hide an $1,100 bike behind a bush outside Cheyenne, Wyoming, make sure it’s yours — and doesn’t have an AirTag on it.

Police in Northern Ireland are investigating after a viral video captured an adult riding a bicycle with a child draped over their back, and narrowly avoiding a collision.

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Local 

Los Angeles is narrowing the sidewalk on a 500-foot stretch of Balboa Blvd to make room for more cars — specifically left turn lanes — in a process Streetsblog’s Joe Linton describes as “harmful to city budgets, pedestrians, cyclists, climate, air quality, historic preservation, etc.” After all, who needs sidewalks anyway, right?

Metro’s Adopt-A-bike program is bringing mobility to families impacted by the January firestorms by providing them with free donated bicycles.

Culver City Crossroads offers more information on the CC city council’s unanimous support for extending the Ballona Creek Bike Path.

Santa Monica continues to improve the former quick-build MANGo greenway, and plans to build another on Washington Ave.

 

State

MSN reposted the San Diego Union-Tribune article we linked to yesterday about the California Ebike Incentive Program’s apparently successful third attempt at managing the 128,000 people who attempted to apply for a voucher last week, for everyone who couldn’t see it, like me. And I was even quoted in it.

The AIDS/LifeCycle ride passes through Monterey County on its way to the Central Coast for the last time, with 2,500 people taking part in the final tour.

Palo Alto councilmembers are pushing back against the city’s new bike plan, which calls for bike lanes on major traffic corridors.

This is the cost of traffic violence. Sad news from Stanford, where the president of the campus Democrats was killed when he was struck by a driver while riding an ebike on campus — raising the question of why a university campus even allows drivers to go fast enough to kill someone.

 

National

Sorry not sorry. A writer for Bicycling makes a concerted effort to stop apologizing for the “otherwise self-assured” way she rides. But maybe they should be apologizing for reposting the same damn story that originally appeared in 2017. 

This is the cost of traffic violence, part two. An off-duty Harris County, Texas police sergeant riding a bicycle was killed by a 63-year old man driving a U-Haul truck, in an allegedly drunken hit-and-run.

A Michigan man is building prosthetic limbs from readily available bicycle parts in an effort to help the nine out of ten people worldwide who don’t have access to artificial limbs.

A new campaign ad targets Boston Mayor Michelle Wu over her support for bike lanes, even after she ripped out the protective barriers.

 

International

A European website says bicycle tourism is changing how we see and spend on the continent.

Cyclist recommends the best road bikes — as long as you have a somewhere between the equivalent of $6,700 to $17,300 to spend.

Apparently, crappy bikes aren’t allowed to have great brakes worth more than the bike itself.

A writer for Cycling Weekly says bicyclists have a right to be angry about infrastructure, but it’s not worth fueling a culture war by haranguing people online. I’ve learned through long and painful experience that it’s just not worth engaging with the haters on social media, because it’s an argument no one ever wins.

In what may be the understatement of the year, the owner of Germany’s Canyon Bikes says “it was another challenging year,” after losing the equivalent of more than $43 million last year.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly says Simon Yates proved he’s one of Britain’s best-ever cyclists by winning the Giro, after riding “undercover” until the final weekend.

Mexican media continues to celebrate the success of Isaac del Toro’s second place finish in the Giro, calling it the best ever performance by a cyclist from the country. And marking the 21-year old as someone to watch going forward.

British cycling legend Sir Mark Cavendish will be honored by renaming a raceway in his honor on my ancestral home, where my great-great-great-great grandfather helped bankrupt the local bank.

LA28 announced venues for an accessible 2028 Paralympic Games, with most of the events located in Downtown LA and Exposition Park. Although it’s questionable how competitors and spectators will get to the games when the city isn’t building the bus and bike lanes they promised to make them car free.

 

Finally…

Your new wheels could pay homage to Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstrat guitar. It’s about damn time a bicycle was portrayed as an upscale, laidback status symbol on TV.

And that feeling when you have to bunnyhop a feline at the finish line.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.